In October last year a group from the Children’s BBC (CBBC) came into the IOCT to see the space, meet some of the people using it, and have a quick viewing of Inanimate Alice 3. They were a very friendly and on-the-ball group – and they mentioned a CBBC project which has been announced today on BBC News called CBBC World. Think Second Life designed for kids, without any of the money or trading aspects… they are very keen that the environment will be safe for kids, with no chatrooms or facilities for building new parts of the virtual world which could then be abused by users.

It is expected to go live in the summer, with a full launch in the autumn to coincide with the CBBC relaunch.